Hi there... My name is Marcos Daniel Marado Torres, but I'm often known in the Internet by the handle of Mind Booster Noori.I was born in the Yule day of 1982 in Lamego - Portugal. I'm an Informatics Engineer since July of 2005.

25.9.07

Two episodes that I lived in the last few days, both while having a meal.

Last week I went to lunch somewhere in Moscavide, in a zone I'm not used to go, because I needed to go nearby to buy a cushion, and so I decided to eat near there after the deal was made. After being there, I soon realized that that place was really full of usuals trying to make money there: from little gipsy girls asking for some change to Cais sellers begging to sell a magazine (or if I could at least give them a few coins, despite "thou shall not beg" being one of their rules). But what astonished me, and soon enough made me unconfortable and disgusted was when a guy entered the place with hundreds of pirate CD's and DVD's to sell. Now, liking underground bands like I do, I've already seen a really fair bunch of poorly-packed demos, but those CD's and DVD's were even worse: bad printing in a folded sheet of bad paper with a cheap CD-r or DVD-r inside of it. Two guys in the table next to mine stared at him and started dealing: each CD costed 2.5€ but they managed to get five for 10€. While choosing the CD-r's the guys at the table were happilly chatting about "how bad piracy is", but that it is "also funny" and that they "like to help those sons of bitches". Their words, not mine. In the meanwhile, the "dealer" (I don't even know how to call this guys...) was patiently waiting, with no signs of fright or hurry - at all. It was like he was selling postcards - and passing a receipt. Unbelievable...

This evening I went to dinner to a simmilar kind of restaurant here in Lisbon, and while I was having dinner, alone, I couldn't help myself but listen to the atrocities the kids in the tables near mine were telling. They all make more money per month than me. Really. They know the underground, who to talk to, and - they said - the Chinese were the biggest buyers. I just can't make my mind on if they were only talking about the CD-r DVD-r business, or also other things... I only know that they all wake up before me and get into bed after, but they also makes a big load of money... at least partially out of piracy - true piracy. When the conversation diverged to their xenophobe bullshit (according to them Chinese people should be deported) I got so sick of listening to all of that that I went off that place.

So, there's really bad piracy to be fight on. It allways had been, but kids nowadays do less drugs and more bad-quality music and movies. What can I say? I just wonder why aren't the law entities fighting them, the real thing, and instead of that I must to bear with a clip full of "downloading is stealing" bullshit when I go to a movie theater, or have to deal with restrictive technologies like DRM, that sometimes stop me from watching the movies I have the right to see.